Batmobile Zaps Auction, Ferraris Boost $100 Million Total

The Batmobile, created by George Barris, who calls himself the "King of the Kustomizers." He's behind innumerable TV and movie cars, including the "Back to the Future" DeLorean, "The A Team" van and KITT Trans Am. Photographer: Jonathan Alcorn/Bloomberg

Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Two classic Ferrari roadsters and
the original Batmobile were among the star lots during a week of
car auctions in Arizona that raised more than $200 million.

The Batmobile sold for $4.62 million in Scottsdale as
Batman fans and automobile collectors joined the events.

The vehicle from the 1960s Adam West TV show (“Pow!”
“Zap!” “Kaboom!”) was joined onstage at the Barrett-Jackson
sale by its creator, George Barris, who had previously vowed
never to sell it.

Earlier, the two Ferraris sold for more than $8 million
each, leading auctions that also included Lamborghinis,
Porsches, Bugattis and Aston Martins. The sales, held by five
auction houses, generated an aggregate $223.8 million with fees,
according to Hagerty, a U.S.-based classic car price database.
The total was $39.9 million higher than last year, it said.

“These sales defied financial gravity,” Simon Kidston,
founder of the Geneva-based classic car adviser Kidston SA, said
in an interview from Arizona. “There are a lot of people
squirreling away money in classic cars at the moment. They see
auction results that suggest the market is holding up, and they
like the kudos of taking cars to events where they meet like-minded people who are comfortably off.”

The Batmobile was adapted by Barris in 1966 from a Ford
concept car called the Lincoln Futura, a bubble-windowed coupe
handbuilt in Italy. Though it didn’t carry a formal estimate,
dealers said that it might fetch as much as $5 million on Jan.
19. Barrett-Jackson’s week-long series of sales, from Jan. 13-20, took $102.5 million from 1,340 offered cars. Just four were
left unsold.

Bat Gadgets

The 500-horsepower custom car has a fake jet exhaust in the
back (a painted 10-gallon bucket), a Batphone and two packed
parachutes that actually work, used to effect a “Bat turn.”

The Caped Crusader’s cruiser is almost 20 feet (6 meters)
long and has controls for various imaginary James Bond-like
gadgets on the dash. They include oil slicks, an ejector,
rockets, nails and an anti-theft system.

During the TV show, which ran from 1966 to 1968, molds were
made from the original and some half dozen fiberglass replicas
were created for stunt work and promotional events. In 2007, one
sold at auction for $233,000.

Barris calls himself the “King of the Kustomizers” and
has made innumerable TV and movie cars, including the “Back to
the Future” DeLorean, “The A-Team” van and KITT Trans Am.

“This is the second-most important series of classic-car
auctions in the U.S. after Pebble Beach in August,” Dietrich
Hatlapa, founder and managing director of Historic Automobile
Group International (HAGI), a London-based independent research
company, said in an interview.

Rising values for the most desirable Ferraris of the 1950s
and 1960s was one of the key trends of the market last year,
along with a surge in demand for collectable Porsches following
the 40th anniversary of the 911 RS model, Hatlapa said.

The Ferrari sold at Gooding was an early production model
with Scaglietti coachwork. It was one of only 23 examples with
covered headlights and had been estimated to sell for between
$5.5 million and $7 million, based on hammer prices.

Competition Car

In August, at the bellwether series of auctions in
California, Gooding sold a 1960 “competition” 250 GT
California Spyder, formerly owned by the late New England
collector Sherman M. Wolf, for $11.3 million against a presale
valuation of $7 million to $9 million.

“Ferrari 250-series cars from the 1950s and 1960s are the
absolute sweet-spot of the market at the moment,” Kidston said.

Gooding’s Scottsdale sale raised more than $52.5 million, a
record for the company at that venue, with 12 cars breaking the
million-dollar barrier. The total was 31 percent up on last year
from a slightly smaller 104-lot auction, with 97 percent sold.

Prices continue to strengthen for the rarest cars by the
most desirable marques, said dealers.

At Gooding’s, a silver 1959 Porsche 718 RSK racer sold for
$3.1 million and 1935 Mercedes-Benz 500 K Cabriolet A for $2.75
million. Both results were auction records for those models.

Porsche Demand

“The macro-economic environment still favors tangible
assets,” Hatlapa said. “Though the market dipped a little at
the end of last year, demand for classic cars was strong in
2012.” The indexes for both Ferrari and Porsche were up.

The Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta sold by RM Auctions was
one of just 74 Competizione-specification SWB examples produced,
retained its original engine and chassis, and featured desirable
alloy coachwork. It had passed through the hands of only four
owners, said the Canadian-based auction house.

RM’s sale raised more than $36.2 million from 84 lots, 88
percent of which were successful, said the auction house. The
equivalent event last year tallied $25.5 million.

In all, eight cars fetched more than $1 million at RM. A
1967 Shelby 427 “Semi-Competition” Cobra sold for $2 million
and a 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 reached $1.8 million.

A 1965 Ford GT40, the first production road version of the
Le Mans racer delivered to the U.K., was one of the week’s few
high-profile failures. Bidding at the RM Biltmore auction
stopped at $2.15 million, below the $2.4 million low estimate.

Bonhams raised $12.8 million at Scottsdale on Jan. 17 from
387 lots, 78 percent of which were successful. The top performer
was a ruby-red 1972 Lamborghini Miura SV that sold for $1.2
million, against an estimate of $900,000 to $1.1 million.

Back in 2004, this exact same Lamborghini, then in much
better condition, was sold by Kidston SA to a U.K.-based buyer
for 210,000 euros ($279,000), said Kidston.

Russo & Steel contributed a further $16 million from a more
middle-range offering of cars on Jan. 16-20. Here the selling
rate dropped to 59 percent.

Muse highlights include Warwick Thompson on London theater,
Erika Lederman on London going out and Shaun Walker on the
Bolshoi ballet.